The present invention relates to a steering structure of a personal watercraft running on water.
A personal watercraft running on water is used mainly for leisure or for sports. A driver sits on a seat provided on a rear portion of a deck of the watercraft, and operates the watercraft by gripping a handle disposed in front of the seat.
The personal watercraft is propelled by a propelling device mounted on a rear portion of a body thereof, and is driven by an engine mounted in an engine room within the body, and propelling direction is changed by turning the handle.
FIG. 7 shows a handle supporting apparatus in a conventional personal watercraft disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 61-229690. In this apparatus, a steering column 52 is mounted to a mount wall 51 on a deck, a steering shaft 53 is rotatably supported in the steering column 52, and a tilting member 54 for adjusting its forward and backward angle is supported by the steering shaft 53. The angle of the tilting member 54 in forward and backward direction can be adjusted by a positioning means 55 provided between the tilting member 54 and the steering shaft 53.
Referring to other references, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. Hei 2-105099 discloses a handle bar of a folding type, and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei 7-21438 discloses a handle post cover whose junctures can be precisely alienable.
However, the handle supporting apparatus described above is formed by combining a large number of parts required to be manufactured with a high degree of precision, which increases product cost.
A large number of parts requires long time for assembling work of the steering structure, and the number of parts also increases the weight of the steering structure.
The other references described above also include similar problems in connection with the number of parts requiring high degree of precision and number of steps for assembling the steering structure.